Comics: The Reaper ~ Book 3: To Kill A Reaper

BIC0052
Illustrated by: Vovoi Lim

Story by: Nald Tabuzo

Black Ink Comics
(4/5 ★★★★☆)

"Sometimes people get sick without apparent

reasons that lead them to death. The Morbus

class of reapers could be the explanation.

Firmus is one of them. He can make someone

severely ill by merely touching him or her.

He harvests souls that succumbed to diseases.

Firmus gave Mika an illness that will make

her live like a vegetable for the rest of her life.

Daniel has to kill the reaper to stop the curse

on her beloved girl."

If has been a while since I last bought a new material from Black Ink Comics (BIC). The third book of The Reaper series is the 1st for 2014 that I had gotten. It is to my delight that the problem that I had seen in the previous books of BIC was addressed. This is regarding how the text dialogues and narrations are placed in each page. This is a good sign that BIC is eager on improving the quality of material they are producing by also considering some inputs from their readers.

This 3rd book of The Reaper series gets back from the story of how Mika is continuously frightened to death by Noctis and Firmus. It is their way to get back to Daniel after interfering with their duties as a reaper. It had eventually led to Firmus making Mika severly ill. This book laid out for the start of a match between Daniel and the reaper responsible for Mika's sickness. The book ends with a surprising twist that involves Vi, a calamitas type of reaper.

The Reaper is a good story to follow among the BIC works. The writer continues to feed us interesting information on stories with regards to grim reapers. The new character introduced in this book will make one wonder on how that could affect Daniel in the story. This book also poses the questions if there is indeed a Calavaren Tower in Makati, how is it visible to other non-reapers and how does one access its 13th floor. There are still a lot of books left for this series that can tell more about the nature of reapers. I'd still give a thumbs up on this series.

"The happiness I saw in her eyes eventually helped ease my pain. As long as she was happy, I was happy. Love was that stupid." - Jake Imperial

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Comics: Black Ink Comics' Shortcuts ~ Manga: Some Sweat, Some Love / A Decade of Waiting / The Tree of Happy Leaves

BIC0012

(4/5 ★★★★☆)

The copy that I got was from the first printing so most of my complains would be regarding the layout that was done to this comic book. Because for me it was poorly done due to parts of the texts and illustrations that can't be seen.

This Black Ink Shortcuts contains stories which were drawn in the manga style of art. In this compilation, it features three stories about love which are titled, "Some Sweat, Some Love", "A Decade of Waiting", and "The Tree of Happy Leaves". The cover art features the three stories that are included in this compilation.

Some Sweat, Some Love

Story by: Nald Tabuzo

Illustrated by: Jeff Nice

Black Ink Comics

"It starts when they meet in a gym.

Misty wants to loose weight for Kim.

Adron wants to look brawny for Jigs.

Friendship starts and love happens.

But does physical appearance really matters?"

This is a nice short story. It talks of love that should not be dictated by society. Such as society's opinion of only those who are beautiful should end up together. This story talks of that subject matter. It shows that love should not be contained to the figure of a person. Because love happens to people of all shapes and sizes. We should not be dictated by society on who we should love and force ourselves to change in order to be of a good match to that person. The story was well written, although I found a grammatical error on the short synopsis that was written on the back cover of the book. The illustration was nice that really went along with the story. There's just a funny thing that I noticed on the art on the lower left panel of page 9. In the scene, the screen of the mobile phone shows PJMA 3G. I don't know if a name of that network exists or near to those initials exits. I just found it really funny. The only downside that I could say for this part is the layout that was done which hinder readers to be able to read the texts and see the illustrations more clearly. But in general, the story is a good one.

A Decade of Waiting

Story by: Herbs Navasca

Illustrated by: Enjelia Villanueva

Black Ink Comics

"We live in such a small world.

It is possible that we have crossed paths before...

We just didn't have the chance to truly meet.

But if you had the chance to know me,

I'm sure you'd fall for me."

Among the three stories in this compilation, I would say that this would be my favorite. It talks of the soul mate kind of love. It says that we might have already seen or encounter face to face our soul mate. We just didn't really notice them. But if you can only look back, you might notice that they had been your seatmate in a bus or even the person in front of you in the grocery. As I quote from page 23, "We have seen each other. You just weren't looking." The art was nice and i really liked the cover art, the one that can be seen in the book, was nice. The only downside was the layout that had been done, in which the art and text near the spine of the book can't be seen.

The Tree of Happy Leaves

Story by: Ron Mendoza

Illustrated by: Jayron Zapanta

Black Ink Comics

"Annika loves Eiji dearly.

But Eiji has been forever ignoring her.

Then a dry, golden leaf falls on Annika's head.

Annika knows a thing or two about leaves.

"Finally," she smiles, "I can make Eiji fall for me...""

This is a cute story. It talks of a legend regarding a magical tree that bears golden leaves. It was said that during a full moon, the leaves were said to become magical. You would just take home one of the leaves that would fall. Then by writing the name of your beloved on it, the leaf would wield its power and grant anyone's wish about love. Its one of those stories that you would usually encounter in the movies. The story was nice as well with the illustration that accompanied it. The only downside, which is the same with the other two stories, was the poor layout that had been done.

This compilation holds nice love stories. I don't know if the authors had conspired on one thing but, for the stories "Some Sweat, Some Love" and "The Tree of Happy Leaves", I saw that they had some hunger for lasagna. Maybe they were eating lasagna while they were writing the story, but it was a reappearing object in the course of the two stories. The only downside was the layout that had been done. This prevents us from seeing the rest of the texts and illustrations that are near the spine of the book. Things like that would really take a toll in a reader's likeness of a book, whether it may be a graphic novel, comics or just an ordinary novel book. If it was seen that the layout for printing was not really checked by the one in charge of it before it gets printed, the reader then would sometimes think if he is holding a literature that is of poor quality, even though it was really great. I haven't purchased a new comic from Black Ink Comics for some time but I'm presuming that the next time I get one of those new titles that they are releasing, we could be guaranteed of the improvements it would have due to changes in the layout.

More of Black Ink Comics can be seen at:

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Comics: Black Ink Comics' Shortcuts ~ Fairy Tails: Another Beauty And The Beast / For A Pair Of Legs / Jack And The Giant

BIC0013

(4/5 ★★★★☆)

Aside from releasing comics which consists of around 10 books more or less per series, Black Ink Comics also came out with Shortcuts. It's a comic book that consists of three short stories that are created by different writers and artists. In this shortcut, it presents Fairy Tails with stories like "Another Beauty and the Beast" as the first story. The other stories included are "For A Pair of Legs" and "Jack and the Giant".

Another Beauty And The Beast

Story by: Ron Mendoza

Illustrated by: Arnel R. Coronel

Black Ink Comics

"Maniwala si Beast na hindi mahalaga ang hitsura pagdating sa pag-ibig. "Bulag ang pag-ibig," sabi niya. Pero nang mawala ang sumpa sa kanya at bumalik ang kaguwapuhan niya, bigla ay nagbago ang pananaw niya sa pag-ibig lalo na nang ma-head over heals in love sa kanya ang isang halimaw."

This short story I may say is the best among the three stories complied in this book. It uses the Filipino language and the modern way of how Filipinos communicate with each other. Words like "Nevah", meaning never, was used in the story as a way to present how our current society talks informally. The story is based from Disney's Beauty and the Beast in which the author placed a twist. It answers the question, "What if the situation was reversed with the Beast turning to be a handsome prince, while the gorgeous Belle transforming into an ugly beast?" As much as the story was written nicely, its just sad to see that some of these lines were placed incorrectly. I find that some of it were positioned at the very side where the pages of the book are bounded to its spine, meaning you need to open and expose the pages of the book wide enough in order to read the texts. Then on page 9, where Belle and the beast are having a conversation, I find the speech bubbles to be a bit confusing as to whose lines are spoken first due to their arrangement. Nonetheless, with this shortcoming I find the story and the art to be good. I'd advice though that this story not be read by children in grade school and below for a bad word that it contains, which may highly be disapproved by most parents.

For A Pair Of Legs

Story by: Nald Tabuzo

Illustrated by: Cliff Renegado

Black Ink Comics

"Love makes the little mermaid foolish. She doesn't mind where her love for the prince will take her. Love is a source of joy. But she seems unaware that it's also a source of misery."

This second story is based on another Disney movie entitled The Little Mermaid. It has a less entertaining twist in my opinion among the three stories compiled in this book. In here, the same concerns with the first story like some texts can't be easily read, since it's placed near the center where the pages of the book are kept in place, are still present. It also contain some words which may be disapproved by some parents to be read by their little kids. I might say that the thing that I liked the most with this story was the part where Belle started doing a headstand and all different sorts of dances for a dance competition.

Jack And The Giant

Story by: Jeffrey Marcelino Ong

Illustrated by: Roy Allan Martinez

Black Ink Comics

"Jack climbs the giant beanstalk in their backyard to search for his missing father and brother. He finds a nasty giant whom he kills jubilantly, unaware that what he did would probably be his life's greatest mistake."

This third story of the compilation is now based from the famous Jack and the Beanstalk. The story starts with the beanstalk already in the backyard of Jack. The plot starts with his brother and father who were never seen again after they had climbed up the giant beanstalk. This story gives a different view about the giant that lives in the castle up on the clouds. Still the same problem with the previous two stories were seen to be present in this compilation such as having some of the texts not being easily readable due to its placement.

Overall, this compilation is worth the buy due to the twist that the writers had made to the fairy tails that most of us knew. The only downside is the placing of the texts. I only hope that this difficulty in reading the text won't appear in the next comics published by Black Ink Comics.

Note: Images were taken from the internet.

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Comics: The Reaper ~ Books 1 & 2

BIC0009
Book One: Acerbus The Lord Of The Reapers
(5/5 ★★★★★)

BIC0022
Book Two: Love And Death

(5/5 ★★★★★)

 

                                             Book 1                                                                        Book 2

Illustrated by: Vovoi Lim

Story by: Nald Tabuzo

Black Ink Comics

Black Ink Comics, brings to us a new set of comics that started last year with their introduction at the Winter Komikon 2012. Among those they released first is book one of The Reaper. The second book was released on Summer Komikon 2013. As of now, only two books out of the eleven for The Reaper series have been released.

The Reaper tells an interesting story on the point of view of those entity that guides the souls after a person dies. They are the temporary care takers of the souls until a judgement has been made and the souls are made to ride either an ordinary or an airconditioned bus, haha hanep nu, on the way their respective final destinations. Book 1, introduces to us all of the different reapers and their abilities on how they collect souls. On the other hand, Book 2 picks up the story of how a reaper thinks of getting back at a human that has hindered him from collecting a soul in time. So far as the story was written, it is quite enjoyable to read such as a part on book 2 wherein it depicts that despite the reaper's busy schedule, he'd still do yoga in order to relax and destress after a busy day of collecting souls. :p As for the illustration, it goes along nicely with the way the story is being told. I just hope that this series goes out well from the beginning until the end. As much as I am anticipating for the release of the rest of the books for this series. hehe.

So far, I recommend buying this comic which can easily be found at most bookstores nationwide.

Note: Images were taken from the facebook page of Black Ink Comics